


heating up hearts

by boxuan



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Happy Ending, Platonic Relationships, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 13:17:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13124517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boxuan/pseuds/boxuan
Summary: Maki decides that living in her own flat is 99% advantages, and the one percent of disadvantages is called Nico Yazawa.





	heating up hearts

**Author's Note:**

> Please listen to Red Velvets Rookie for this piece of work!

Maki likes living in her own flat, but sometimes she wonders if it’s really worth it.

Don’t get her wrong - not having to ask her parents first when she wants to go out? Amazing. Being able to eat anything without them nagging?  _Great_. (Sure, the nausea after eating not one, not two, but three raw tomatoes in a row was, in fact, not great. Maki now kind of understands why her parents had told her not to.)

 

It’s 99% advantages, and the one percent of disadvantages is called Nico Yazawa.

To say this is kind of mean - probably straight up impolite, bratty and overall terrible -, but it’s true nevertheless.

It’s not even like they’re close enough for Maki to have an actual reason to, well, mildly dislike her. In fact, they have talked two times in total since Maki moved in (which was exactly one week and three days ago).

 

Number one, the day she moved in. She was barely inside the flat, her dozens of packages still standing around her, and her mother didn’t want to let her go. “I can’t believe you’re a real adult now!”, she had cried, hugging Maki, who struggled against her tight squeeze.

“Mom, please”, Maki mumbled, slowly turning red as her new roommate stood in their kitchen, smirking to herself while cupping a mug of coffee.

When her mother  _finally_  went home - not without telling Maki to call twice a day, not to stay up too late, be nice to her peers in college, etc. etc. -, Maki cleared her throat, avoiding to look at her officially now permanent roommate. (How embarrassing. After all, Nico had more college experience than Maki that came in three semesters she hadn’t has yet.)

“You’ve got time right now?”, Nico suddenly said, snapping Maki out of her thoughts, and same nodded quickly, curious about what the older one had to say.

“First of all”, Nico started, gesturing Maki to sit down in front of her, “I don’t have a thing for schedules. Clear?”

Maki only stared at her, unable to process this conversation. Nico sighed, clearly impatient, and pouts.

“Listen, we clean when there’s something to clean, and cook when we’re hungry. I’m a generous person so I won’t mind if I do a little bit more work than you do. Understood?”

“Alright”, Maki answered, trying hard not to frown, because who did this girl think she is? More like, what kind of kid did she think Maki is?

 

She was even more indignant when it turned out that Nico’s so-called generosity comes in ordering takeout every day - without paying for it, leaving Maki with the bill - and cleaning the flat by putting a plant on their mess to distract from it.

(“ _I’m a generous person_ ”, Maki mumbled in rage when scrubbing the floor on her knees, “Generous, my ass.”)

 

But Maki had learned that sometimes, confronting people is better than being angry in silence - her friends would have been proud -, so she walked into Nico’s room and ripped out Nico’s ear buds when she didn’t notice her instantly. (Number two.)

“Hey!”, Nico complained, looking up to Maki in a grimace. “What is it? I’m doing homework right now.” Maki glanced at the laptop’s monitor laying on Nico’s lap.

“While listening to the pussycat dolls?”

Nico threw her hands in the air. “What can I say? I’m a woman of culture.”

Maki scoffed at her before saying, “Didn’t you say you would clean from time to time?” When Nico only raised her eyebrow as an answer, Maki added, “because you totally don’t.”

Nico gasped. “That’s not true!” Maki pointed at the huge pile of clothes on the floor and the two dozens of empty water bottles on Nico’s desks, smiling triumphantly when Nico looked taken aback.

“Whatever”, Nico mumbled, putting her earbuds back in, “I promise I’ll clean soon, okay?”

Maki realized that it’s for this conversation when Nico started to hack into her keyboard again, so she grunted in frustration and turned on her heels to leave.

 

“And that was two days ago?”, Kotori makes sure and when Maki nods, she hums in agreement.

They’re in their favorite café, celebrating because Kotori has had her last exam today. “Yeah”, Maki sighs, leaning back. “But I don’t think she’s going to hold that promise.”

“Oh, I do”, Kotori replies, smiling when Maki starts frowning as she’s putting one and one together.

“Why? Wait, do you know her?”

“Nico? Yeah. We met in High school. She was always that dedicated student, super ambitious as well. Of course, her grades were terrible”, she quickly adds when Maki looks like she doesn’t believe her, “especially in maths, but she seems to have worked that one out, huh?”

 

Maki thinks about how all Nico does is study, and maybe Kotori’s right and Nico’s not as bad as she seems.

 

Kotori appears to be most definitely right when Maki comes home and notices that the mess from almost two weeks has been cleared.

She looks around in unbelief - the dust on the shelves is gone, no books are laying around, there isn’t even dirty dishes in the sink. (This is the one that seems the most impossible - Nico tends to hoard bottles in her room, but also uses a new glass for every sip of any beverage she drinks. Additionally, she keeps leaving knives in the sink which just drives Maki crazy.)

“Nico?”, she raises her voice, shuffling through the flat. When no one answers, she sighs and eventually knocks on Nico’s door, going in without bothering to wait for a reply.

Nico’s fallen asleep, not on purpose, as it seems, for she lays on her chair, multiple open books on her lap. Maki comes closer - tiptoes to not awaken her - and glances at the titles, whom she doesn’t even understand properly. (They’re about ten lines long and filled with words she hasn’t even heard of before.)

She looks around - as if someone were there to catch her being nice for once - and then carefully picks up the books, neatly placing them next to each other after she made place on Nico’s desk (she seemed to have cleaned up everywhere but her room - Maki wonders if Nico solely prefers the mess over anything else or if her time was so little and she prioritized Maki’s satisfaction over her own comfort).

She sneaks to her own room, grabs a blanket and returns to the snoozing Nico, wrapping the blanket carefully around her shoulder.

“Good night”, she mumbles after a second, awkwardly shifting her weight from one leg to the other one, “and, uh, get some rest.”

Maki quickly rushes out of the room, not seeing that Nico snuggles closer to the blanket in her sleep, smiling satisfied with closed eyes.

 

Maki figures that since it’s turned out Nico Yazawa actually isn’t  _all_  bad, she should at least get her a Christmas present. (The realization that she slowly starts to warm up for her tells her that, but so does the fact that politeness and a big love for Christmas basically force her to.)

 

The question is - what could she possibly buy for someone she has been knowing for a good two weeks?

 

She thinks about clothes, but that’s boring, and besides, she really does not want to guess Nico’s size of clothing (no way that this one will not  _not_  turn into a mess). Maybe something cliche, something Christmas themed, and Nico would totally be the type for that, but Maki wants something that fits perfectly.

 

After hours of visiting shops and brainstorming Maki decides that perfection is overrated, anyway.

 

She prepares a small bag with lots of things in it - sweets she knows Nico loves because Kotori has told her so, a pair of pink gloves, transparent hand warmers with reindeer on them, and, lastly, a snow globe with a ballerina in it (Kotori also has said that Nico once had the dream to become a singer, and this was the closest thing Maki could find). In the end, Maki’s overall satisfied with what she has made out of an awkward desire to make a gift for someone she barely knows.

“Um, Nico?”, she says on Christmas Eve, holding her gift behind her back. Nico’s in the kitchen, making breakfast (for once) in an apron, looking up when Maki’s coming in.

“Good morning!”, she chirps, “and merry Christmas.”

Maki swallows a “Officially, Christmas is tomorrow, not today” and sits down. “I didn’t know you could cook”, she says instead, eyeing the substance in the pan Nico’s holding casually.

“Oh, you can bet I can”, Nico snorts, flipping the food - pancakes, Maki now sees. “I’m actually rather great at it.”

Maki rolls her eyes and stands up again to set the table, slyly hiding her present in the cupboard when Nico doesn’t look.

“By the way”, Nico suddenly says, looking awkward from one second to the other, “thanks. For, uh, earlier. When you put that blanket on me.”

“It’s nothing”, Maki quickly answers, “really.” There’s a tensed pause, and she adds, “also thank you for cleaning and stuff. Appreciate it.”

“It’s nothing”, Nico repeats after her, smiling. “Here.”

She drops a pancake on Maki’s plate and shoves it closer to her. “Eat while it’s still warm.” So Maki does.

They enjoy their breakfast in peace, and maybe Maki’s only imagining it, but any silence between them is now shared and not awkward anymore.

“Hey, Nico”, Maki mumbles between two bites, “I’ve got something for you. For, you know, Christmas.”

Nico raises an eyebrow. “You do? I thought I was the only one who prepared something. I was already so ready to be the superior one…. having you run the household because you can’t take the guilt….”

Maki deadpans and Nico pouts, putting her hands up to show she’s given up at teasing her. “Fine, fine. Just let me grab my present real quick.”

 

She heads to her own room, while Maki searches for her own one, her heart beating hardly in her chest.

She didn’t think about the possibility of Nico buying something for her. ( _Exciting._ )

They’re sitting on the dining table, facing each other, and Maki can feel her face heat up. Maybe Nico doesn’t even like all the cliche stuff, she chose the wrong sweets and all of this was a horrible idea.

“Lady’s first”, Nico beams and Maki puts her present on the table. Nico grabs it and carefully opens the bag, her eyes shining when she see its content.

“Maki Nishikino, I love sweets to death!”, she examines, clearly excited and gasps when she sees the snow globe. “Thank you so much! I’ll put it on my nightstand so I can always look at it before I go to sleep.”

 

Somehow, Maki is flustered ; the fact that Nico is so genuinely happy about the small gifts makes her happy, too.

 

“Here”, Nico clears her throat, giving a blank envelope to Maki, “it’s not much, but…”

Maki rips it open and a card falls out. Her mouth forms an “o” and she opens it with careful fingertips.

It’s self-made, that’s surely why Maki adores it. Nico must have put lots of time into it, there’s paper hearts and stars cut out and glued onto the card and glitter spread all over it. The inside only consists of a handful of words:

 

“Merry Christmas. Let’s stay together for a long time. Lots of love, Nico.”

 

Maki stares at the words, flushing.  _Lots of love, Nico._

“It’s kind of”, Nico mutters, scratching the back of her head, “uh, intimidate, I guess-“

“No, it’s alright”, Maki interrupts her, and then, more gently, “I like it. A lot.”

Nico’s cheeks turn red. “Oh, g-good. It’s not the actual gift, though.” She’s right - a single piece of paper has fallen out of the card when Maki opened it, so when she spots it on the floor, she bends over to grab it. When she can see the words, she gasps. “Nico…”

It’s a coupon for a observatory.

“I love star-seeking”, Maki says, kind of out of breath, “how did you know that?”

Nico blinks her blush away. “I just guessed, really. I’m really glad you like it, though.”

Maki thinks about it for a second and then shyly asks, “would you like to go with me? To the observatory, I mean.”

There’s a big, big smile on Nico’s lips when she answers, “I’d love to. Want some of my sweets?”

“Sure”, Maki grins back, and they chew on the candies in peace.

 

“Merry Christmas, Nico.”

 

It’s not the end, but the very beginning. They’re not perfectly working together – yet, maybe-, but Maki feels in her guts that the very one percent of disadvantages could turn into a one hundred percent of reasons to stay in this flat very, very rapidly.


End file.
